These House Democrats have been empowered to truly dig into the Trump administration’s dirt

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January 3, 2019 8:43PM (UTC)

President Donald Trump’s administration is plagued by seemingly countless scandals, from Russian interference in the 2016 election to the first family’s finances. And now, with a Democratic majority in the House, the president and his associates are likely to be the targets of just as many investigations.

Even before the midterms swept Democrats into the House, there were over 100 investigation requests. Now that they hold the majority, Democrats have the power to more deeply probe everything from James Comey’s firing to the hurricane response in Puerto Rico to the family separation policy at the border.

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“Winter is coming,” a source close to the White House told Vox.com. “The White House will be under siege,” they added.

Vox.com points out that the real power resides in Democratic-led committees, which have the power to issue subpoenas compelling the unearthing of documents and forcing testimony; that information can trigger Justice Department investigations and cause trouble for the president at the ballot box in 2020.

Many committees are chaired by lawmakers who have already made it clear that they will not let the president’s potential ethics breaches slide, such as Rep. Schiff, D-CA, head of the Intelligence Committee, who threatened that the president could “face the real prospect of jail time” over his alleged payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

In addition to that, Schiff plans to investigate whether the Trump’s laundered Russian money as well as the president and his families’ ties to Saudi Arabia. “The president is not being honest with the country about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” Schiff said on CNN. “Is his personal financial interest driving U.S. policy in the Gulf?” he asked. “Are there financial inducements that the president has not to want to cross the Saudis?”

Another Democrat eager to dig in to the Trump administration’s misdeeds is Rep. Cummings, D-MD., As chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Cummings is charged with probing any suspicious activity by the executive branch.

Even when they were in the minority, Democrats on the committee filed over 50 subpoena requests, on issues ranging from the administration’s family separation policy at the border to ethics breaches by former EPA head Scott Pruitt.

While Schiff and Cummings have been some of the president’s most vocal critics, that’s not where the administration’s troubles stop. Multiple other committees have the power to probe presidential breaches of conduct.

The Ways and Means Committee can look into Trump’s tax returns, the House Committee on Financial Services — headed by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, — plans to look into suspicious financial activity linked to Deutsche Bank, and the Foreign Affairs Committee is likely to investigate how Trump’s financial interests may have swayed his foreign policy.